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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Perot Says Gore Cheated In Debate

Associated Press

Ross Perot suggests Vice President Al Gore cheated during their 1993 NAFTA debate by wearing an earpiece that fed him advice, according to a book on the Texas billionaire and his political life.

Gore’s spokeswoman said the allegation sounded like the work of an overactive imagination. “Yeah, then Scotty beamed him up to the Starship Enterprise,” Lorraine Voles joked. “That’s just ludicrous.”

The book, “Citizen Perot: His Life and Times,” by Gerald Posner, is an unauthorized look at Perot, who did, however, grant interviews and provide documents to the author.

Posner writes that Perot believed Gore wore an extra earpiece, aside from the one used to feed telephone callers’ questions to the participants, during their nationally televised debate on Nov. 9, 1993.

Perot performed poorly, according to reviews of the debate, his favorable rating plummeted and the North American Free Trade Agreement passed.

Perot attributed part of his problem to something that “glistened” in Gore’s ear, according to the book.

“Watch the debate and you will see that thing twinkle,” Posner quoted Perot as saying. “And the only reason that somebody on my team looked at the film again was that was the word on the cocktail circuit.”

Posner said he was surprised by Perot’s comments.

“You have a man about to run for president accusing the sitting vice-president of something unethical,” said Posner, also the author of “Case Closed,” a reexamination of the Kennedy assassination.